Obama celebrates ‪#‎VeteransDay‬… in China! He once expressed envy for how Chinese leaders can get things done without political opposition.

Obama vows US will cut emissions by at least 26 percent over next 11 years

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the U.S. has set a new goal to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by between 26 percent and 28 percent over the next 11 years as part of a climate change agreement with China.

The new target is a drastic increase from earlier in Obama’s presidency, when he pledged to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020. By contrast, Obama’s counterpart, Xi Jinping, did not pledge any reductions by a specific date, but rather set a target for China’s emissions to peak by 2030, or earlier if possible. Xi also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels.

China’s emissions have grown in recent years due to the building of new coal plants.

“This is a major milestone in the U.S.-China relationship,” Obama told a news conference in Beijing, with Xi at his side.

“It shows what’s possible when we work together on an urgent global challenge.”

The Associated Press reported that the deal was the result of months of ‘secret discussions’ between U.S. and Chinese officials.

Here is something else to think about on this day after we

Honor our Veterans

During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, the U.S. produced the following:

We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battlefor the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany.

It’s worth noting, that during the almost exact amount of time, the Obama administration couldn’t build a web site.

Now that’s something to think about on this cold, dreary November day!

In a day and age when love of God and Country has waned it seems to me an appropriate time to reflect and remember those people and times when Americans stood tall and took on the challenge of those times

There are many in America who longer think of America as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

They no longer believe in the great American ideal and would rather change it to a people of the World State within the United Nations.

They would rather step on our Flag than Fly it Proudly.

Those people don’t speak for the rest of US!

We are the Silent Majority and unless we as a People begin to speak up I fear all that is and has been America will be lost forever and we shall find ourselves in a thousand years of Darkness.

Russian fighters intercepted by US near Alaska

Two Russian fighters entered a US “air defense identification zone” two days ago and were intercepted by American F-22 jets near Alaska, military officers said.

The incursion on Wednesday was followed by a second incident on Thursday involving two Russian long-range bombers, which flew into Canada’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and were intercepted by two Canadian F-18 jets, officers said.

In both cases the Russian aircraft flew out of the area without incident.

The Russian warplanes “never entered US sovereign air space” or Canadian air space, said Major Jamie Humphries, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

In Wednesday’s encounter near Alaska, the Russian fighters were accompanied by two refueling tankers and two long-range bombers, he said.

Although Russian aircraft have entered the zone previously it was “the first time in a long time” that fighter jets passed through the area, said a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

To safeguard a country’s air space, air defense identification zones extend beyond territorial air space and are designed as a buffer to give a government more time to respond to potentially hostile aircraft. But the zones do not fall under international treaties and are not regulated under international law.

The Russian aircraft flights coincided with a visit by Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko to Washington, where he made an impassioned address Thursday before a joint session of the US Congress, denouncing Russia’s military intervention in his country.

But Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said there was no indication of a link between Poroshenko’s visit to Washington and the air incidents.

“We’ve faced these kinds of incidents before. We take them very, very seriously. And we routinely intercept them,” Kirby told CNN.

“We’ll make our intentions known to Russia as we always do and we’ll certainly discuss our concerns with them at the appropriate time and in the appropriate venue.”

It was unclear if the Russian aircraft were in the area due to exercises announced by Moscow in far-eastern regions, including the off-shore naval training grounds of the Kamchatka region.

The Vostok-2014 exercise started on Friday and was scheduled to last through September 25 and included 100,000 troops and 120 aircraft, according to the Russian defense ministry.

In Wednesday’s encounter near Alaska, the Russian aircraft veered into the air defense zone at about 7 pm local time (0200 GMT). In Thursday’s episode near Canada, the Russian bombers flew into the area at about 1:30 am local time (0830 GMT).

President Barack Obama at times faced an unenthusiastic crowd as he addressed American military veterans at American Legion’s National convention on Tuesday. As the Daily Mail puts it, Obama received “awkward silences where White House speechwriters expected ovations.”

“You know that we should never send America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way unless it is absolutely necessary and we have a plan and we are resourcing it and prepared to see it through,” Obama said.

After a brief moment of silence, weak applause followed.

A seemingly weaker response followed when Obama said America’s “longest war” in Afghanistan would soon come to a “responsible end.”

However, one of the most awkward moments came when the president had to wait several seconds for any response from the audience.

“As we go forward, we will continue to partner with Afghans so their country can never again be used to launch attacks against the United States,” he said.

Several seconds of awkward silence followed before scattered clapping is heard.

The Right Pundit has compiled a video containing several moments where applause lines received very tepid clapping or just plain silence:

The VA scandal has not helped Obama’s standing among military veterans.

In the same speech, Obama announced 19 new executive actions for treating mental health problems and for suicide prevention of American veterans and vowed to fix the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Veterans called for it, we heard you, which is why today I am announcing 19 new executive actions to help improve mental health care for those american heroes and their families,” Obama said.

Veterans honor D-Day’s fallen, 70 years later

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France – Men who stormed Normandy’s shore 70 years ago joined world leaders Friday in paying tribute to the 150,000 Allied troops who risked and lost their lives in the D-Day landings in Nazi-occupied France, in a day of international commemorations of history’s biggest amphibious invasion.

They are honoring the troops and civilians who fell in mighty battles that helped bring Europe peace and unity — just as bloodshed in Ukraine is posing new challenges to European security and threatening a new East-West divide.

As the sun rose Friday over a gusty Omaha Beach, flags flew at half-staff. A U.S. military band played Taps, while D-Day veterans from the 29th Infantry Division and serving soldiers stood at attention at exactly 6:30 a.m., the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded ashore.

Hundreds of Normandy residents and other onlookers applauded the veterans, then began forming a human chain on the beach.

World leaders and dignitaries including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II are converging on Normandy to honor the more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied D-Day troops who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

The D-Day invasion was a turning point in World War II, cracking Hitler’s western front as the Soviet troops made advances in the east. Overall at least 4,400 Allied troops were killed the first day, and many thousands more in the ensuing three-month Battle of Normandy, which brought the Allies to Paris to liberate the French capital from Nazi occupation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also in attendance, invited by French President Francois Hollande in a gesture toward the 27 million Soviet citizens killed in World War II.

The D-Day commemorations are also offering a moment to try to reconcile Russia and Ukraine, and Russia and the West.

Putin is meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Deauville on the Normandy coast Friday morning, after meeting Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday night. Ukraine’s president-elect is also coming to Normandy, and there is hope he and Putin may meet, too.

The encounters marked the first time the isolated Russian leader has met Western leaders since pro-European protests in Kiev pushed out Ukraine’s Russian-leaning president in February and Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Back in Normandy, several thousand veterans, family members and others gathered at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, with its 9,387 white marble tombstones on a bluff overlooking the site of the battle’s bloodiest fighting at Omaha Beach, the emotional centerpiece of pilgrimages to honor the men killed in Normandy.

Soldiers of 173rd Airborne brigade, the ceremony organizers, served as ushers, wearing maroon berets. For the ceremony, small U.S. and French flags were placed in the ground at each grave.

Obama declared June 6 a national remembrance day.

In a declaration Friday, he said, “Seventy years later, we pay tribute to the service members who secured a beachhead on an unforgiving shore — the patriots who, through their courage and sacrifice, changed the course of an entire century. Today, as we carry on the struggle for liberty and universal human rights, let us draw strength from a moment when free nations beat back the forces of oppression and gave new hope to the world.”

In addition to the fallen troops, Allied bombardments killed an estimated 20,000 French civilians, and Hollande paid tribute to them Friday in Caen, which like many cities of Normandy was largely destroyed in the bombings.

France has only tentatively come to grips with the invasion’s toll on civilians. The Allied bombings — especially the deadly onslaught in Normandy during the invasion launched on D-Day — were used as a propaganda tool by the Vichy government. But historians now believe that nearly as many French civilians died in Allied air raids as Britons during the German Blitz.

“No one knew that this day would be the first of one of the most ferocious battles of France. This battle was also a battle of civilians,” Hollande said. He said Normandy’s residents “helped the victory happen. They opened their doors to the liberators.”

Ceremonies large and small are taking place across Normandy, ahead of an international summit on Friday in Ouistreham, a small port that was the site of a strategic battle on D-Day.

Today’s conflicts are also on many minds at the D-Day commemorations.

Jeffrey McIllwain, professor at the San Diego State University school of public affairs, will lay a wreath on behalf of educators who have lost students to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — himself included.

He, like many veterans and world leaders here, is concerned about keeping the memory of D-Day alive as the number of survivors dwindles.

He brought 12 students to Normandy for a course on the lessons of D-Day.

“I make them promise to bring their grandchildren to serve as a bridge to the next generation,” he said.